$20 for a Three Lb Turkey...?!?!?!

Hello!


I hope you are all enjoying the consumer driven black Friday! Everyone asked me if I was home sick yesterday because it was Thanksgiving in the States but it was easy to keep busy because no one else was celebrating Thanksgiving and it felt like a normal day. I feel like it will be more difficult during Christmas when everyone is celebrating and you realize how things are different.

Anyway - Last weekend was really good. I just hung out with some friends and didn't really do anything too exciting. I guess one exciting this would have been the Tea and hat party show that the sisters took us to. It was a fundraiser for a Church that burnt down and needs money to begin the new construction. On Sunday I went to the "creek" for the first time and went swimming. It was kind of hard to get myself to swim in water that looked a lot like coke. I did go in but I would say that I much prefer to swim in water in which I can see the bottom.

This week has been good. On Monday I went into work but ended up going to the hospital/clinic because I had been having some sort of allergic reaction all weekend and kept breaking out in hives. I have still been breaking out in hives almost every day but they can't figure out what it is that I am allergic to. This has lead to many early nights sleeping because of the medicine I am taking.
On tuesday was my normal day at the hospital but this week it was VERY busy. It is the national HIV testing week and I helped pre-counsel for about 15 tests on tuesday. This includes informing individuals about what HIV is and then assessing their risk and then helping them to evaluate how they can reduce their risk of contracting the disease and when they should come back for another test.

On wednesday I went to the hospital again instead of the school because they needed my help with all of the testing. These two days taught me a lot about the idea of Mercy. No matter what life choices someone has made throughout their life I would never wish a disease like HIV upon anyone and I find that I learned about how it is must be the same with God's view of us when something terrible things happen to us. He does not wish bad things upon us even when we create ourselves inside the situation. Yes we must be punished for the wrong that we do - but just because their is punishment, sorrow, or despair does not mean that the situation is void of love, compassion and mercy. There are people this week who will find out that they have a disease that will most likely lead to their death, but that does not mean they are any less of a human or deserving of any less love. This is one of the most difficult parts of my job because so many people have a stigma against those with HIV. This breaks my heart over and over again. As I was once reminded next to the blessed sacrament, the person next to you is the holiest thing on earth because they have Christ inside of them. When it comes to HIV many people forget to look at the dignity of the person and dismiss them for the disease that they have. Ignorance may be bliss but it also causes much pain and despair.

I was having a hard time with this on wednesday when I randomly saw one of my students at the hospital visiting someone. It was a really good breath of fresh air on a down day. Its good to find the love of God in the simplest things.

After I got home from work on Wednesday we made a Thanksgiving dinner. We had Turkey, Mashed Potatoes, Gravy, Bora (green bean ish) Casserole, and Rolls. It was nothing in comparison to Grandma Theresa's cooking but at least we didn't have to eat chicken or beef again! :) The turkey was super expensive but we saved up because we ate really cheaply otherwise this week. We've basically ate left overs or some beans. It was good to be with Sarah and Audrey because at least we had each other. Audrey also made a really Amazing pumpkin dessert with real pumpkin. I am grateful for her dessert cooking ability!!
Thursday was a normal day - went to work, came home and got to call my family for a few minutes. This was really good to hear their voices and be able to talk to them even for a short period of time. After that I went home and went to a celebration Mass for the Ursuline community here in G/town. I got to talk with some Daughters of Charity afterwords and a Carmalite novice. It was really good to have conversations with them and they invited me to come and visit or volunteer with them sometime. One of the mercy pre-novice said she would bring me there sometime so that was very nice.

Today has been fine we had a staff meeting which was interesting. It brought me back to think about how earlier this week I had to teach computer class and two boys kept misbehaving. Since the boys kept misbehaving I had to discipline them but by the end of the hour they were fine. Then all of a sudden I see one of the bigger boys holding the other two boys by their necks and dragging them over to me. He goes "Miss - they have something to say to you". Both of the boys came and apologized to me for being disrespectful and told me they promised not to misbehave in my class. I didn't know if I should discipline the one for using physical force to drag the other two over or laugh because it was so cute. In the end I thanked the boys for apologizing and thanked the other boy but asked him to keep his hands off the others. Two boys got into an argument because I came in and asked a class a question and one boy started to lie to me and the other boy don't lie to miss you'll get us all in more trouble!!! It was interesting not seeing my girls so much this week but beginning next week I have them as normal so everything should be well! I miss seeing and working with them, but it was also good to have them go out and actually do hands on work.

Well anyway - I feel as if I didn't have too much to say this week but oh well. I hope you all had a very blessed Thanksgiving and realize how much we all have to be Thankful for. Remember if you ate three meals today you ate more than many of my students, and that in itself is something to be thankful for.

May God bless you,

Ashley Ann